Cookin' With The Miles Davis Quintet - Miles Davis

Cookin' with the Miles Davis Quintet is the first of four albums drawn from two marathon recording sessions at Rudy Van Gelder's studio on May 11 and October 26, 1956. The sessions were designed to fulfill Davis's Prestige contract quickly so he could move to Columbia Records, where he had already begun recording. Producer Bob Weinstock essentially captured the quintet's live repertoire with no retakes, and the results were parceled out across Cookin', Relaxin', Workin', and Steamin'. The group — John Coltrane on tenor saxophone, Red Garland on piano, Paul Chambers on bass, and Philly Joe Jones on drums — had been working steadily as Davis's first stable quintet since his triumphant 1955 Newport Jazz Festival appearance. This album opens with Davis's muted-trumpet reading of "My Funny Valentine," performed as a quartet with Coltrane sitting out, and moves through a brisk "Blues by Five" and a medley linking "Tune Up" with "When Lights Are Low." The playing throughout has the ease and communication of a band performing its nightly sets, with Garland's crystalline touch and Jones's crisp, propulsive drumming anchoring the rhythm section. Despite the contractual circumstances of its recording, the album is regarded as one of the essential hard bop documents.